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INTRODUCTION and WELCOME to Geotrees.Com, sometimes known as "the Tree."

Vision and Mission

The seed that was to grow into "the Tree" first took root in the mid-1990s, beginning with our fundamental perception:

Most people, including many Americans, need to know more than we do
about each others' histories, cultures, traditions and ways
if we are to live together in respect, abundance, security, liberty and peace.

Geotrees was created in March 2001 to help meet that need.

      In the years that followed, we've developed this line of inquiry around four basic questions. If we wish a certain kind of future, how, specifically, does it arise? What can we actually do, beginning now, to help create it? Conversely - how does our present situation reflect our choices, decisions and deeds of the past? And what kind of future can we reasonably expect if we do not act to change course?

With such questions in mind, Geotrees' vision and mission have grown organically:

	OUR VISION:   Geotrees envisions and values a secure world of abundance, justice, equality, freedom and peace. To take birth and grow, such a world requires a context of certain causes and conditions, which we will create skillfully at all levels of the human family, individual and shared. This context includes knowledge, understanding, pluralism, cooperation, reconciliation, and informed action. To create these preconditions, we'll need to apply certain tools and practices, personal and social: respectful and rational communication, inquiry, discernment, accuracy, clarity, and hard work. Intentionality is crucial.  We need to bring sustained vision and principle, purpose, commitment, will, and effort to bear at all times. We need to exert intellectual and moral character - integrity, empathy, authenticity, reflection and self-knowledge, courage, and imagination. The resources and working materials for this process are all around us: The arts, diplomacy, cultural life, journalism, travel, learning, education, religion and spirit, history, economics, statecraft, and similar activities - in fact, most areas of human activity - can be drawn on and engaged creatively to nourish this process, these goals. Geotrees' mission is to be a crossroads for sharing the unparalleled bounty of knowledge and activity, of curiosity and passion and imagination, from around the world and across the sweep of history that the Washington, DC region and its many peoples provide.

      We're committed to the transmission of fact-based historical, intercultural, and historical news and knowledge throughout the national capital region. We enable people and organizations to reach out and connect across the national, ethnic, generational, faith, economic, and other boundaries that so often divide humankind. And we recognize these connections as preconditions for understanding, unity, and peace.

      Geotrees is completely independent, nonpartisan, inclusive, noncommercial, self-financed, and volunteer. While we focus on people and activities within the Baltimore/ Washington area, we also welcome those in the larger world who have a stake in international learning, cultural activity, and understanding. We extend a special welcome to educators, and to our young people.

      All of our web pages are designed to be user-friendly, simple and easy to use, using basic browsers. Any browser of version 2.0 or higher should furnish quick access to our pages. No special plug-ins or capabilities are required.

      NOTE:  Geotrees now accepts and posts email announcements in browser-readable HTML format. Such mail has a number of important advantages to author and reader alike. We recommend that you upgrade to current email programs, such as Mozilla's free Thunderbird or Qualcomm's Eudora, if you have not done so already.

      Geotrees can connect you with a wide range of activities, events, and resources. Details about our mission and features, and links to those features, are provided below. You may use these links to move immediately to their pages.  Top

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International Knowledge: A Pressing Need
      Our basic perception is simple: Most people do not know enough about the histories, cultures, and ways of others in order to live with understanding and skill in our complex times, or in the future.  Our mission is to help share such knowledge in an atmosphere of pluralism and respect, and to discuss the ways we create civilization and the future, as foundations for international and intercultural communication, understanding, reconciliation, and peace.

      Are you curious about other cultures and traditions?  What do others need to know about your culture, your history and current issues, from your perspective?  Conversely, if you're from overseas, what do you need to learn about navigating in the US?  Geotrees can help answer these questions.

      Geotrees is open and welcoming to all, without preference or prejudice - a place where people on all sides of an issue can cross the seas of hundreds of years of history and find themselves welcome to come and listen to others, and freely share what they feel is important for others to know and understand.  Top

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Why So Local?
      The Washington, DC area is a galaxy of experience, knowledge and imagination unique in our time.  The people within this region can meet personally - can gather to share discussion and activity.  We feel that virtual and electronic contacts can support the value of such encounters, but not replace them.  Facilitating these live encounters throughout the Washington region is one goal of our work.   Top

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Cultures and the Mesh of Civilizations
      Geotrees presents activity and information from as many cultures as possible, encouraging their contact and interaction, while honoring the autonomy and integrity of all. We are especially sensitive to the need of traditional civilizations to remain autonomous in the face of globalization.

      By "cultures" and "microcultures" - the smaller, self-identifying groups within larger "host" cultures - we mean human groupings based on shared perceptions, traditions, behaviors and identities, not necessarily to the exlusion of other groups or individuals.  A healthy culture does not need to make others "wrong" or "bad" in order to be "right."  Nor do we have to go abroad to find vivid cultural contrasts and fault lines.  In many regions - including the Washington, DC area itself - there are cultural distinctions within the domestic population that are almost as great as those to be found anywhere on the planet.

      Domestically and abroad, we see cultures forming along several lines, such as national, historical, traditional, ethnic, religious, spiritual, value systems, generational, linguistic, and conomic.  Obviously, the interplays and overlaps can be complex.  We use these categories as a provisional or suggestive outline to facilitate communication, and not as a set of rigid categories or conclusions.   Top

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Our Mission
      Geotrees' mission is to support activities and resources that further intercultural understanding, with the ultimate goal of seeing those so educated become an active influence for communication, understanding, and peace in the times to come.  Such education requires new levels of intention, creativity, and deep commitment.

      Geotrees addresses itself to a rich, largely under-utilized resource: The growing population of those who have spent important years - youth or adult - outside of their native countries, and who have basic multicultural knowledge and perspectives as a result.  This includes visitors and immigrants to the US, as well as returning Americans.  We wish to help such intercultural people connect with one another, and share their knowledge with the larger public in schools, congregations, companies, cultural organizations, and other venues.

      We recognize that there are also many intercultural people who've never left the US, but whose interests and commitments place them squarely in the pool of international culture and concern.  They are welcome into Geotrees' conversations.   Top

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Independent and Non-Partisan
      Geotrees.Com is inclusive and nonpartisan.  Thus, some may be surprised to see postings of material about some of the most passionately controversial and partisan nations and civilizations of recent times - Cuba, China, Islam, the Balkans, Chile, Russia, Iran, Iraq, for example.

      It is precisely because these are, in the West, among the most poorly known and understood societies that it is crucial for us to learn about their histories, their cultures, and the logic behind them.  As we wrestle with this unfamiliar knowledge, we also begin to grapple with our own ignorance, prejudices, and preconceptions. In this way we begin to open the door into understanding.

      Some of our postings may have partisan political or issue-related content.  We do not necessarily agree or disagree with any of them.  But they are part of the cultural ecology, and available to your discussion and critique.  Indeed, partisanship itself can be seen as an artifact for historical and cultural study - an organic outgrowth and reflection of the fundamental forces that we are concerned with, including human nature.  In any event we invite the reader to distinguish fact from opinion, learn the history, ask your questions, and see for yourself.

      And this is as it should be.  Geotrees will not abide ignorance, bigotry, polemic, narrowmindedness, or cultural arrogance.  We will, however, always welcome honest, principled, and open controversy.   Top

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Non-Commercial
      All Geotrees activities are free of charge, and we accept no outside funding.  We are completely advertising-free. We may mention commercial venues and businesses for the value of their contents, but we accept no material favors in return.  While we share projects and partnerships with likeminded groups, Geotrees is and will remain completely nonpartisan and independent of all government, corporate, commercial, or other bodies.   Top

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The Virtual Organization
      We hope to connect with other intercultural organizations, such as those serving "global nomads," "overseas brats," and international alumni groups, to bring intercultural knowledge to people in the Washington, DC area in concrete ways.  One idea is presentations to middle and high school educators alerting them to the intercultural students in their care, and the needs - and potential - of such young people.   Top

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• The GEOLINKS Resources Catalog
  A growing web catalog of hundreds of intercultural and civilization-building groups and entities in the region, from volunteer grassroots groups to national and global institutions.

• The WORLD PRESS LINKS Page
  Launched in the spring of 2008, this is Geotrees' newest and potentially most important page. It offers links to English language newspapers and media outlets, focusing on those of the peoples and nations least understood by, and often at odds with, the West. Each country's listing also includes links to basic facts, maps, appropriate etiquette, and its embassy or interests section in the US.

• NEW! Posted Friday, September 19, 2008
  THE BRIDGE, Faith and Interfaith Calendar Page
  This page offers an inclusive calendar of faith and interfaith events and activities from throughout the region, including services, retreats, dialogues, community projects, workshops, the arts, and more. It is edited by Rhonda Williams of the Ambassadors for Peace.

• The Geotrees EMAIL MESSAGE AND DISCUSSION LISTS
  Hosted on Yahoogroups, these lists open windows into civilization-building and intercultural life from a number of perspectives. Open posting and access to message archives became available on the three leading lists in the spring of 2008.

• The VISIONARY SCHOOLS Page
  A growing collection of links to schools and around the planet, grades 7 through college, that prepare students for the future in extraordinary or unconventional ways - often focusing on bridgebuilding, reconciliation, leadership formation, peace studies. Includes a link to a concept proposal for the Village Academy, an unconventional international school of the future.

• The FOUNDATION DOCUMENTS Page
  Links to the complete texts of foundation documents, including the Magna Carta, the US Declaration, Constitition and Federalist Papers; and the proposed European Constitution.

• Social Studies TELEVISION SCHEDULES
  A one-stop collection of links to the schedule pages for the social studies and documentary channels: C-SPAN, Discovery, History, National Geographic, and WETA/PBS.

• LINKS to RELIEF ORGANIZATIONS
  A page of links to relief organizations, focusing on the Niger crisis as of Summer 2005. Your related events, programs, and group listings are welcome.

• "Pennies from Heaven" YOUTH FUNDRAISING MODEL
  A simple model or "recipe" enabling young people to help others, build bridges, learn cooperation, experience unity, and develop leadership.

• The METRO WATCH Showcase Page for WPFW FM 89.3
  A day by day archive, including contact information, of many of the program's guest organizations and individuals. Also, volunteer and internship opportunities at Metro Watch. Since March of 2006.

      All groups accept attachments, and are moderated. Each Yahoogroups site offers links to posting, and viewing the message archives, on its upper left-hand side. For posting FAQs and guidelines, scroll down to "Your Messages, Our Mission," immediately following this list.

• Open Posting!   The inclusive sweep of the original list:   The GeoTREES.COM FLAGSHIP LIST
        This is the original Geotrees group, for sharing news, notes, and knowledge that embrace all aspects of intercultural, internationalist, and civilization-building interest and activity. It covers many areas, including the arts, education, diplomacy, bridgebuilding, reconciliation, youth, the environment, travel, cultures, statecraft, empowerment, and more.
        To Post:  Send your message to geotrees AT yahoogroups. com.

• Open Posting!   Faith and Interfaith:   INTERPLAN
        Originally organized in the autumn of 2002 to support the interfaith activists of Arlington, Virginia, Geotrees.Com's Interplan email group now serves faith- and interfaith-based bridgebuilders throughout the national capital region. Our mission is to support their work of outreach, fellowship and reconciliation, and to help bring the values of spirit and faith actively to bear in building a better world.
        To Post:  Send your message to interplan AT yahoogroups. com.

• Open Posting!   Activism and Transformation, Grassroots to Global:   DEESEEDS
        This group was begun in order to connect students and graduates of master peace educator Colman McCarthy; it has grown to handle announcements and news of activism, including political, economic, and partisan activism, in behalf of building justice, abundance, self-determination, reconciliation and peace.
        To Post:  Send your message to deeseed AT yahoogroups. com.

• Membership   Person-to-Person Language Exchange:   DC LANGUAGE INTERCHANGE, or DCLI
        Do you have language skills to share? And are you learning a language? You may wish to find language exchange partners by posting messages of the "My Italian for Your Romanian" type on this list. NOTE: DCLI was originally established by others, then transferred to Geotrees stewardship several years ago. We're trying to contact the founders as of June 3, 2008.)

• Membership   Expatriate and "Global Nomad" Interests:   GNOMADS
        Have you lived overseas, or are you from abroad and living overseas at this time in the US? Or are you interested in living abroad? This group originally grew out of Norma McCaig's work with "Global Nomads" and the community emerging from that work. It now embraces the interests, activities and experience of expatriates young and old, wherever they are from, wherever they are now, and wherever they may go.

• Open Message Archives   Independent Public Radio:   OurWPFW
        Pacifica Foundation's WPFW "Jazz 'n Justice" radio, at 89.3 FM, is probably the most independent radio outlet in the national capital region, with the most potential for becoming a truly diverse, intercultural voice for both cultural life and public affairs. OurWPFW is an independent group that supports the station, its staff and its many community volunteers, and that serves as a bridge between the station and the people and communities it serves.

      The first three - Geotrees, InterPlan, and Gnomads - now offer open posting and message archives. Anyone may send messages to these groups, or consult their message archives, at any time without becoming members or receiving postings automatically. This feature can be valuable to those who already receive a high volume of 'mails, and who may wish to use these lists, while limiting that flow. DCLI, Gnomads and OurWPFW are more specialized, and available to subscribers only. (All are welcome to join; OurWPFW has its message archives open to the public.) Each group, open or membership, gives internationalists, interculturalists, educators, and other bridge- and civilization-builders a variety of voices and perspectives.

      FAQs and guidelines for posting are given immediately below.

NEW! Public Open Posting and Message Archives
      Geotrees' flagship, interfaith, and peace activists' email groups now have open email message archives, and open posting. Anyone may read the messages, and post messages of their own, without joining or subscribing. For details, scroll up to "The Geotrees.Com Email Message Groups," immediately preceding this section.

Guidelines and Practices for Posting
      We welcome your items for web pages and for email groups, consistent with these values. The following "how to" guidelines apply to both.

• The Communities We Serve:   Our attention is primarily, but not exclusively, to the Baltimore/Washington region. National and global activities with local value or implications are also welcome, as are readers and correspondents from around the globe.

• Open to All:   Everyone and their organizations are welcome to post: large and small, including government, business, and academe; from grassroots groups, clubs, congregations, schools, advocates, neighborhoods, and more.

• To Unsubscribe:   There are two general ways to unsubscribe from Geotrees emails. First, each of our lists on Yahoogroups provides for quick, automatic unsubscription. Simply send a blank note to that list at (group name)-unsubscribe AT yahoogroups. com. Second, to unsubscribe from other Geotrees 'mails, send your request to us at guest AT geotrees. com. When changing addresses, remember to first unsubscribe, then resubscribe under your new address.

• Using the Flagship Email Group:   Our lead discussion group is Geotrees, hosted on Yahoogroups. As of spring 2008, the group has open posting and public message archives. For details, visit the Geotrees.Com Message Groups section of this page.

• Multilingual Messages are Welcome:   Messages presented in two or more languages are welcome, as long as one of the languages is English. Note that some languages' alphabets may not appear accurately on US browsers.

• Open Expression:   We welcome a full range of information and opinions, from all sides of a given issue - especially from those who are least known, understood, or visibile in the public arena.

• Writing Your Message:   Write your posting as you would like to see it when published - we post items largely verbatim and unedited, although we occasionally will take time to fix spelling, grammar, and punctuation. And if you have a distinctive linguistic or cultural flavor that reflects the interest and value of your post, such as turn of phrase or interesting vocabulary, we encourage you to use it!

• Formatting Your Emails:
      - Text Style:   Plain Text remains welcome, but is no longer necessary. Browser-readable mail has many advantages, including embedded active links, and we now encourage its use. We suggest upgrading to a current mailer if you haven't done so already.
      - Extra Blank Space:   We sometimes receive messages with wide gaps of blank space - four or more lines - between paragraphs, or even between individual lines. This obliges the reader to scroll unnecessarily, and does not add to the message's value. (This is often associated with chain, "cute" or "trick" mails of various kinds.) Avoid this. When such submissions go to the bottom of the queue, and if we do post them, we remove the extra spacing first. This takes extra days.

• Timeliness:   Whenever possible, please send your notices at least ONE WEEK in advance of the event. This shows respect for reader and for message alike, and allows time for system slowdowns at Yahoo and elsewhere. Last-minute listings will only be carried as time permits.

• Completeness:   Please include some descriptive narrative in the body of your posting itself, and introduce your links and attachments. Don't rely on unexplained attachments or URLs to tell your story.

• Disclosure, Ownership, and Anonymity:   Public ownership of your information is important. Please include your name, that of any organization, and points of contact as you wish them presented publicly. (Noms de plume are fine for literary or satirical entries.) But if you believe that your post could expose yourself or others to harm, and wish to post anonymously, contact the editor in advance.

• Mutual Crediting of Sources:   We always ackowledge and credit our sources by name and point of contact, for both email and web page postings, and we appreciate it when people credit Geotrees when they quote us. If you wish to remain anonymous, however, let us know, and we will honor your request.

• Moderated:   Geotrees' groups and web pages are "moderated, but not censored" to prevent spam, and for good faith, good will, good sense, good taste, and relevance.

• Private Messages to the editor should be sent to to guest AT geotrees.com. Any and all others may be posted publicly.

• Web Page Entries:   Send your posting directly to events AT geotrees.com. Please include a descriptive cover message.

• Email Discussion Groups:   For rapid posting and to receive messages automatically, send directly to your target group. (Scroll up to the preceding section for details.) To post to several groups at once, or from outside of a membership group, send to events AT geotrees.com.

• Attachments:   Some of Geotree's discussion groups now distribute attachments, from trusted sources. Check with the editor if you have any questions.

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Contacting Geotrees

Geotrees.Com is located in Northern Virginia, close to Washington, DC.
We welcome your comments, questions, suggestions, calendar items, or
other civilization-building postings at all times.

Send comments, suggestions or questions to:

guest AT geotrees. com

Send public notices, descriptive links, and other postings to:

events AT geotrees. com

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© Copyright 2001-2009 by Geotrees.Com and Charles Stevenson.  All rights reserved.

Dedicated, with great respect and great love, to the vision, the work and the legacy
of St. Joseph College / International School of Yokohama, Japan
and to the teaching, the lives, and the personal example
of its defenders and loyal faculty.

"For the History of the Future"

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